Welcome

Welcome to my little world! My name is Donna and I'm the mother of one very spoiled kitty named Clarice. I was a banker for over 20 years but now I'm a SAHM and loving every minute of it. I'm a super, huge Bon Jovi fan and an avid cross stitcher. I love decorating my home with flea market finds, primitive style items and vintage items. My hubby says if the last three generations threw it out as trash it'll end up in our house as a decoration.

Monday, January 30, 2012

Mark was off again on Saturday traveling to Germany for meetings. Today he's moving to Reims, France for meetings tomorrow then off to the Netherlands for more of the same. He's headed home again on Saturday and I get to keep him a whole week before he's off to Korea again. Whew, I get tired just looking at his calendar.

So I dropped him off Saturday after a big lunch at PF Changs...my fave and a stop at Barnes and Noble for him to load up on magazines for his trip. Then I was off to play in Michaels, Homegoods, 3 thrift stores and even Target without buying one blame thing. I was fighting a headache and really just should have gone home because I wasn't in a browsing frame of mind. Oh wait, I did buy a coffee at Starbucks inside Target but that was it. Amazing!

Finally drug my rear end home and off to bed but didn't stay there long. I couldn't find my headache meds so I started searching the medicine cabinet....bad, very bad. I had already taken my sleeping pill and I hit the jackpot, mother lode of codeine pain meds given to Mark when he had his throat surgery several, several years ago. I have no idea exactly how much I took but it was way too much! My skin was crawling, I was deathly sick, couldn't sleep and dang sure couldn't walk anywhere. It was bad so as I sobered uo I added "not allowed to take any meds after sleeping pills unless someone is here to administer them to me." I also poured all that pain medicine down the toilet and flushed it away....I know it's bad for the water supply, fishes, ect but it was even worse leaving it in my home. I couldn't get out of bed all day yesterday but finally woke up this morning with no headache for the first time in over a week. I'm making an appointment with the dr tomorrow because we need to do some tweaking of my migraine drugs.

So now the list of what I can't do after taking pills include:No cooking-not even tea 'cause I still have a huge blister on the roof of my mouth from that incident from last winterNo Emails-no filter to stop from saying weird stuffAlso no telephone calls or texting-I think I'm freakin funny and very smart after my pills kick in but not everyone else in my life agreesNo Leaving The House-Bad experience waking up on the front lawn and having no idea how I got thereNo Eating-let's just say that bags of hersey kisses go missing when I roam the kitchenNo Stairs-I think I'm very gracful but Clarice and Mark disagreeAnd finally No Sex-no matter how much I beg, he knows I won't remember it in the morning

The list seems to get longer every night but hey, at least I'm sleeping good. Some of those Not To Do's on my list might rank up there with TMI but guess what I've already had my pills for tonight so that filter is off and there's no one to police me except Clarice.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

It actually worked and I figured out how to post a link for another blogger's giveaway. Wow, I might just get the hang of this yet. Anyhoo, Sarah is having an awesome giveaway of stitchy stash and we all know how I love, love my stitchy stash! What I like about her giveaway is it has a PIF which for those of you that don't speak "blog" (em, Mom) it is Pay It Forward. So after you stitch Little House Needleworks, Baked Goods, you pass it on to someone else to enjoy. I've done this with several patterns and it just makes me smile every time. I love sharing my passion for a design with someone else and really like to see how they stitch theirs.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Wow, sure wish I had listened to Dr Mark before I spent the $$$ on a co-pay to see a "real dr". That was an amazing trick and the dr even said I could use it when my fingers split from stitching to much....hey it can happen when the needle is flying. LOL! Anyhoo, he said just make sure I wash them really well before I do it because would want to glue the germs in ....yucky! I can actually walk without limping but of course, I did get a tube of the special lotion and I have applied it twice a day including while watching tv with saran wrap booties. I think you could probably do this same trick with any heavy lotion because the saran wrap is just trapping in the heat and really allowing the lotion to penetrate.

I leave in the morning for a business trip to Alabama....yep, that's right where all the storms hit last night. It seems weird that I'll actually be the one away on a business trip while Mark holds down the homefort. Of course, unlike his business trips, I'll only be away one night and I have cooked a huge pot of chicken and dumplings along with frosted sugar cookies to tide him over while I'm gone. Why doesn't he do this for me when he's leaving?

We had a very lazy weekend of just hanging out at home. It rained all weekend long and really had huge thunderstorms Saturday afternoon so we just snugged up at home. We watched everything we had taped while he was gone, watched a couple of movies and I stitched a lot. It was very relaxing and allowed us to get reconnected before he leaves again on Saturday. He's headed back to Germany and France for 12 days so I needed some hubby time and this weekend was great.

Well I'm off to stir my dumplings and finish my laundry so I can get packed up. Lots of estate sales coming up this weekend and since I'll be forced to drive into Atlanta to drop him off at the airport, I'll need to make it a worthwhile trip and stop at a few.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Yesterday was heavenly and I did stay in my pj just about all day long. I finally hit the shower at 3:30 and that was only because I was starving for some "real food" and needed to get my glasses adjusted. I hate, hate getting my glasses adjusted because the place is so small and always, always busy no matter what day or time I stop by. I was there 30 minutes before they even had a chance to acknowledge me and almost left several times but my new glasses were starting to rub the bridge of my nose raw so I stuck it out. Argh!!!! So after that nightmare I decided to treat myself to a trip to the bookstore and a nice dinner out . Now one is probably thinking but she owns a kindle and we know this because she raves about it to anyone that will listen....and they'd be correct but every now and then I still like to wonder into the bookstore to look for new authors. I always check out the bargain books for home decor markdowns and can never pass up the magazines. I confess that I have a magazine addiction....other people need liquor, drugs, ect but I need shiny slick magazine pages! So afterI looked around and purchased a couple of said shiny page mags, I headed to Jim and Nick's for bbq! I love that place because they make everything from scratch daily and have the greatest cinnamon apples and creamed spinach. They also make pies from scratch but I abstained but only because they were out of take out boxes for me to bring it home in. How strong do you really think my willpower is? Not strong enough to resist chocolate pie!!!!!

And today I was back at work or sorta back at work. I had to go see the dermatologist because I'm having a horrible time with the skin on my feet cracking open. I split my instep over the weekend that was the final straw so I called the dr's office yesterday in tears because I was hurting so bad. They agreed to work me in this morning and you can't imagine what they told me. Get this....buy superglue and use it to close the wounds, use this special foot creme (which by the way my co-pay is $100) and apply it then wrap your feet with saran wrap for atleast 1 hour a night. Huh???? The scary thing is that Mark told me to use superglue a few weeks back and I called him crazy! Man, I really dread telling him that he was right and I was wrong to question him on that bit of medical advice. The dr also said never wear shoes without socks, quit pumicing my feet and buy better shoes that fit properly. Ok the buy better shoes I will do but the other 2 I'm not so sure about. How can you wear skechers with socks and not exfoliate? That's too scary!

So I went to the dr then back to work for a couple of hours before leaving to take Clarice and Gizmo to the vet for shots. The vet's office was running a 2 for 1 special on animal exams and it was time for the little ones to have checkups. I was mortified and think we have offically been banned from the vet's office. Last time Hubert bit the vet and now Clarice acted like she was a demon cat. She rolled her eyes up in the back of her head, scratched, bit and screamed for all she was worth. I've never seen anything like it. I had asked the vet to cut her nails but they wouldn't even touch her. They managed to get a towel over her head long enough to adminster the shots but then they literally threw her back into her carrier. There was no exam or even taking her temp because she was wild! Now Gizmo on the other hand, rolled over to have his belly rubbed and was a perfect angel. I certainly hope that Clarice doesn't have to go back this year because I'm not sure after her proformance that they will see her. I think from now on that Mark should have to take her and Hubert to the vet office because it's too hard on me watching them manhandle my babies.

Ok so that's the updates on my little world for today and now headed off to wrap up my toosties in saran wrap. That just sounds so weird but hopefully it'll fix me right up. I know the superglue trick went a long way today in cutting down on the pain in my foot after I recovered from the horrible sting of applying it.

Monday, January 16, 2012

to quote The Mamas and The Papas! I plan on hanging out in pjs and doing nothing all day long. Well I might do something like eat lots of junk, watch mindless tv and stitch. I certainly won't make the same mistake that I did about 4 years ago when I took the train into downtown Atlanta to pick up Bon Jovi tshirts and pins from Hard Rock Cafe. Never even occurred to me that there would be Huge Parade and Crowds celebrating MLK day. Duh, it's Atlanta! My granny would say that "Donna Gay's elevator don't aways go up" and sadly the older I get the more true that is becoming.

I have had an entire weekend of just fun and feel recharged. Mark's still gone so Saturday I drove up into the mountains and hit a few shops and estate sales. The only bad thing was my favorite store, Hearts and Flowers was closed because of the cold temps. I was really bummed out about that because I have Christmas money that needed to be spent dang it! I will learn to call ahead in the future before I make that drive in the winter.

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Sunday found me at the Mall of Georgia meeting with Maria for a fun day of lunch, movie and shopping. We did the usual favorite PF Changs which truth be told, I could eat at every day! And then we saw the movie New Years Eve which was great. We knew that Jon had a role in the movie but had no idea that his part was so huge. It was wonderful and we did get a little singing so that might tide us over for a few days. Of course, I'm probably the only person in the world that honed in on the fact that as Jon was singing in Times Square there was a billboard ad for Memphis. So I got my secret David fix! LOL! Too soon it was time for her family to pick her up so I headed home. Clarice was a snuggle kitty and actually sat on my footstool while I stitched last night. She's never, ever done that before so I was beyond thrilled. My Maggie cat would sit in my lap when she was really tired and nap while I stitched but none of my other cats have ever done that.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Let's see it's been above 60 degrees all year but today within the space of an hour the wind started howling and the temps started dropping. It's suppose to be in the 20's tonight....brrrrr....where's my warm snuggle partner....oh Clarice will you let mommy curl up in the kitty condo tonight and watch tv?

Mark left Monday afternoon for Germany and I'm doing ok with it this time around. He sent me his schedule yesterday and he'll be out of the country for 5 of the next 7 weeks so I'd better be ok with this. I know, I know that he's always traveled and that I have always thoroughly enjoyed my me time but the last year it's been a little depressing not having anyone to talk to at night. You know your mind starts reeling with home, work, family, ect and there's no one sitting right beside you to pull you off the ledge. Anyhoo, I got some new happy pills, started seeing a therapist and things are looking brighter again. Of course, a family cruise for the holidays went a long way into helping me find my way back to me! I feel so grown up saying I have a shrink....lol....very Sex and The City don't ya think? She's helping me learn to cope with work stress a lot better and given me some insight into why I do what I do. But most importantly, she just listens without judgement or trying to solve every issue I talk to her about. I love my hubby but he thinks he has to solve any work issues that I try to talk to him about and he doesn't get it, no matter how many times I say it.....just listen, don't fix anything! He's a doer and I'm a thinking about doing person.

So back to the family cruise, I went ziplining with my youngest brother, John and had so much fun. I had almost forgotten what a smart, funny guy he is. We're always close growing up but I don't get to go home that often anymore and when I do, I'm always trying to cram as much "auntie" time in that I forget that my brothers are even in the house. I still can't believe that I went ziplining because I'm terrified of heights so much that glass elevators freak me out. Not to mention my control freak tendencies so this was a huge feat for me. The rest of the family decided to go with Mark drift snorkeling but John really wanted to zipline so I chose to go with him instead. Of course, I have failed to mention that I got "stuck" about halfway across the 2 zipline and was just dangling out there. When they say" don't brake lady until you are almost at the platform", they really, really mean don't brake lady until you are almost at the platform because if you do, you will be left dangling until we can send out a sandbag and knock your fat ass back into moving. It was quite funny then and even funnier now that I'm back on solid ground not dangling from a harness in the rain forest baring my fat, white ass and scaring the monkeys. I had a blast!!!!!! And so did John once he stopped laughing at me. It was a great week for family time and reminded why I love my family so much....hey, we really put the "fun" in dysfunctional family! It was heavenly to just hang out, laugh and not to mention a whole week without even having to pick up your own wet towels off the bathroom floor or wonder who was going to clean up the kitchen.

Ok off to cuddle with Clarice and drink some yummy hot chocolate or something to warm up.

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About Me

Happily married for 27 years with one furry baby named Clarice the International Cat of Intrigue. I love to decorate my home for any and all holidays with halloween being my fave. I love primitive and antique things. My best friends and I call ourselves the Dirty Martini Queens and take at least one girl's trip per year to celebrate ourselves! I love reading mystery novels, cross stitching and all things Bon Jovi!